When Bro walked in the door, Dave was washing his hands in the bathroom sink. He strode out to see Bro staring at him in astonishment.

"Dave, what are you doing?"

"What?" Dave said, and then realized that Bro didn't know he apparently wasn't injured. "Oh! No, let me-"

"What are you doing up."

"Bro, I'm fine."

"You broke your ribs!"

"And now they're better!" Dave snapped, to shut him up long enough to offer an explanation. "Listen. John came by to thank us for saving his friend- look, here, he gave us a cake- and at one point he touched my shoulder. And now the bruising is gone. And it doesn't hurt anymore."

"What?"

"My question exactly." Dave threw the hand towel onto the bed. "What the shit? How did he do it?"

"Are you sure it wasn't something else? Are you sure you didn't just take a painkiller or something?"

In response, Dave pulled up his shirt to reveal where there had been previously a mass of purple bruises. There was nothing there- no marks, no signs, nothing. Even his scratches were gone. All signs of injury had mysteriously vanished.

"The fuck?" said Bro, taking a seat on his bed. Dave shrugged and let his shirt fall back down.

"I knew there was something off about him... but I don't think he knows he can do it," Dave mused. "Maybe he's just a minor... healer?"

"Dave."

"There are minor psychics!" Dave raised his hands, defending his point. "MAYBE there are minor healers too. Who knows, maybe everyone has superpowers and they're all just really weak superpowers."

"Rrrriiiiight," Bro said skeptically. "I sincerely doubt that."

"Whatever." Dave sighed. "But I don't know what to-"

Whatever conversation they may have had was immediately put on hold, as a form flickered into being in their hotel room. Dave jumped, staring at the figure, which was standing next to the desk. It looked decidedly like... a child, a boy. The kid stared at his hands for a few seconds, then looked up. He had shoulder-length, dirty blond hair, and he was wearing what kind of looked like a worn frilly blue jacket. There was a little flower and a medal pinned to his shoulder. He stared up at them, frowning, and then said in a strong French accent, "Where am I?"

"Uh," went Dave, reaching for his gun. The kid stared at him, and made no move to kill him, so he stopped.

"Who are you?" the kid asked.

"Who are you?" Bro said out of reflex, taken aback. Dave glanced over at him, surprised.

"Um," said the kid, and went quiet. "Don't remember," he finally muttered, after a few minutes of staring at his hands and fiddling with the cuffs on his coat.

"Okay," said Dave. "Are you here to kill us?"

"What?!" The kid whipped his head up so fast his hair flipped backwards. "No!"

"Well, that's a good start," Bro mused. "So why are you here?"

"I dunno?"

"Do you remember anything happening to you?"

"Well, I got shot." The kid picked at the buttons on his coat and pulled the blue apart to show a white shirt and brown pants underneath. There were blossoms of red caught somewhere in half-spread, tendrils of delicate red stretching through the white. Dave almost winced. A dead kid? That somebody shot? Who was apparently French? He'd REALLY have to check the records on this one.

"I don't get it," Bro muttered. "Why would you just show up in here? You're clearly a ghost."

"Sorry?"

"You're dead. Sorry to break it to you."

"Bro!" Snapped Dave, glancing over. Geez, what if the kid didn't know?

"Oh, I know," the kid went. Okay, well that was alright, then. He sighed, then cocked his head to the side. "Wait... which one a you is the older one?"

Bro raised his hand.

The kid raised an eyebrow and stared at Bro. "I'm s'posed to kill you," he grumbled, then shook his head. "Naah."

"Wh?" went Dave and Bro simultaneously.

"Well there's somethin' tellin' me to kill you, but I don't wanna."

"You're just gonna... not?"

"I have a problem with authority."

"Right," Dave went, worried. He carefully stepped towards the kid. "Okay, so... wait, hold on. You're being... told? To kill him? Why not me too? Who's telling you?"

"Not allowed to say the name," the kid said. "Dunno the name. Um. I dunno why I'm not s'posed to kill you, maybe you're off-limits?"

"Wow, okay, that's bullshit, why is it always me with the target on my back?" Bro sighed and sat down on the bed, relaxing like conversing with a dead child was everyday business. Well- not that it wasn't- but- they usually didn't TALK to dead children, they just stopped them from murdering people.

"Where's the other one?" the ghost asked suddenly.

"What other one."

"There was another person what came through," he said, turning in a circle. "Dunno where she went."

"Another... through...? Wait, another person? Like, another ghost?"

"Yeah, yeah," the kid nodded, then darted past Dave and jumped onto the bed. It bounced beneath him and he grinned. "Haha! What's this?"

"Uh, a bed."

"No! You must be rich!"

"Not really," Dave said, but Bro snorted.

"Kind of," Bro said, when Dave looked over at him in confusion. "I mean, we've got a decent amount of money. You know. All of my-"

"You can stop right there," Dave said. "There is a minor present."

"Two, actually."

"I don't count as a minor."

"Yes, you do."

"Not in this case." Dave gave Bro a sharp look behind his shades. "No weird toy-talk in front of the dead ghost kid."

"That's a sentence you don't hear every day."

"What're you talkin' about?" The kid said, finally turning his attention away from the bouncy bed. He poked it. "This is the strangest bed I ever seen!"

"I've," Dave muttered absentmindedly. The kid ignored him.

"So... wait, so you got pulled here. Through the veil? With another ghost." Bro muttered, trying desperately to deduce some conclusion out of this strange situation.

"That's right. I think she's- 'ey, she's comin' now. You might wanna be ready with th' gun a yours, she was nasty."

"She- the ghost?" Dave scrambled for his gun, grabbing it and looking around. He had the pistol on his bedside table, with the mini salt rounds loaded in it, and a silencer screwed onto the end. Spotting it, he put down the shotgun and picked it up instead- if possible, they'd like to not attracted the attention of anyone else in the motel.

Something materialized in the other side of the room. It was a tall, pale woman, wearing a white gown and a spiked crown. It looked like it was made of icicles. She appeared to be floating in the air, up to the point that the world rippled around them and half of the room was replaced by a wintry forest, with a snowfield off in the distance. If Dave squinted, he could spot moonbeams glinting off of spiked towers over the field. A slow, frozen river wound sluggishly through the frosty waste.

The crowned woman was suddenly sitting in a red sleigh, and holding a long white wand. Dave was caught between surprise and confusion, as was Bro.

The kid yelped, then ran to stand by Dave. "Quick, distract her!"

"Huh?"

"Distract her! I can take 'er down. She's a right nasty queen!"

"Okay," said Dave, and shot the queen in her sleigh. The bullet pinged off her spiked crown and she swiveled her head to look at him. Her pale face was smooth as marble, beautiful features carved in anger at him.

"How dare you," she said, and stepped down from her sleigh. Bells jingled on the sides of it. Two enormous reindeer stood in front, ready to pull it, which Dave had managed to not notice before. Snow swirled around him.

"Uh."

"How dare you," she repeated. "You, a simple little human, attack me? I am a queen, and you must kneel before me."

"Sure," Dave said, and shot her. She staggered backwards, and Bro came up behind her with the knife. She whipped around and touched him with the tip of the white wand, and he froze where he was and toppled over.

"Bro!" Dave yelped, but was suddenly lost in a flurry of loud barking noises.

The kid had apparently opened the motel room door, which was still visible. Dogs poured in somehow, mostly pups. They leaped on her, snarling and barking, and in the fray Dave managed to get a clear shot at her eye and fired.

She burned to nothing. The winterscape and the dogs vanished, leaving Dave with an empty room, his confused frozen brother who was suddenly waking up, a white wand lying on the ground, and a very pleased-looking ghost kid.

"Dogs?" Dave said, as Bro unfroze slowly and started standing up, shaking his head in confusion.

"Pups," the kid agreed. "Hey, you can call me Pup! Since nobody knows my name."

"That works," Dave said dully. "Um-"

"Guess wot, there's two more," Pup said, concentrating.

"What? Here?!"

"No! Around." Pup waved his hands around, closing the door to the motel room. He went and sat back on the bed. "I can sense them."

"Uh."

"Every time we kill a ghost, more appear," Bro muttered. "Every- wait, hold on."

"Something's controlling- well, summoning- the ghosts," Dave said. Pieces clicked in his head. "Every time we kill a ghost, it summons two more. That sounds like, um..."

"Something mythological."

They both sat there for a second, and then Dave reached back onto the bed and nabbed his phone. Pup scooted out of the way. "I, hmmm... maybe John knows," Dave explained, unlocking his phone. "I mean, he seems pretty smart. Smart enough not to try and deal with ghosts on his own. Smart enough not to piss them off. Maybe he knows what we're looking for."

"A thing what summons ghosts?" Pup frowned. He was completely lost at this point, but fortunately he could try not to look at the cell phones and interest himself with the bedside lamp.

"Maybe," Bro answered dubiously. "No harm in checking." He grabbed the computer and opened it while Dave swiped in a message and sent it to John, who was now saved in his Contacts.

TO: John Egbert

yo john i got a quick q is there any sort
of mythological critter that summons
ghosts and when one of the ghosts dies
it summons two more
12:34AM, May 29

He set his phone down on the bed, very aware of Pup tugging repeatedly on the lamp chain, fascinated. "There. Maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't. I dunno. Found anything yet?"

"Nothing that really summons ghosts," Bro said, shaking his head. "Although I did come across a load of bullshit spells to summon the ghosts of your ancestors to consult about your life. Or, apparently, to give you magic powers. Wow, even make you fly. Holy shit, Dave, we're missing out on some serious business here."

"Ha, ha. isn't a reliable resource for actual magic," Dave muttered.

"No shit."

Dave's phone buzzed. He picked it up, then looked at it more interestedly when he noticed it was a reply from John.

FROM: John Egbert

hey dave... um, i don't know about any
monster that summons ghosts, but when
you talk about one dying and two more
being summoned it kind of reminds me of
a hydra? i dunno. sorry... :B
12:36AM, May 29

"Hydra?" Bro said, frowning. He Googled the name and got a lot of hits about a Greek mythological monster and a fake Marvel supernazi group.

"I'm gonna ride on a hunch here and say it's the Greek thing," Dave suggested. Bro didn't deign to respond.

"That's right," Pup said from the bed, where he was leaning back on it. Dave wondered if ghost blood stained sheets- those bullet holes might carry all the way through to Pup's back. "That's the right name, I think."

"Great," Dave muttered. "How- what is it? Are we being faced by a, uh, seven-headed snake dragon monster?"

"I don't think so," Bro said. "It's some kind of creature that's summoning these ghosts. It started with one- I'm guessing lil' lakeboy that we fought the first night, and when he died, that spawned... the girl that beat you up-"

"Oh, awesome."

"- and the kid Mr. Egbert said his friend saw. That's the two from it- so then I whacked train girl, and that brought up Pup and the crazy bitch we just fought. Now there's two more we weren't expecting because she's dead, so we've got a total of four ghosts running around town, and we've already killed three. That makes seven." Bro glanced up, raising his eyebrows. "Seven heads."

"Son of a bitch." Dave 'huh'ed to himself. "Well, now what?"

"We find what's summoning them and nail it." Bro handed the computer to Dave who rolled his eyes and took it, then started refining his search. He was distracted, however, as his phone buzzed. Pup used the opportunity to stare at the laptop in fascination.

FROM: John Egbert

why are you asking about a hydra
anyway?
12:39AM, May 29

theres a hydra summoning these
ghosts. every time we kill one the
hydra summons another two
12:40AM, May 29

oh! can i help?
12:40AM, May 29

i dunno. what would a hydra look
like if it wasnt a seven-headed
lizard dragon monster
12:41AM, May 29

and instead of being a lizard it just
summoned ghosts to be its freaky-ass
lizard heads no offense to pup
12:42AM, May 29

oh jeez, i dunno! a... person? a magic
sorcerer or something? and who's pup?
12:43AM, May 29

oh hes a ghost nbd but seriously we
have got to find this hydra before it
manages to kill anyone else
12:43AM, May 29

oh my god a real ghost? like a friendly
ghost? can i meet him?!
12:44AM, May 29

not exactly our top priority rn but if
you really want to i guess you can
come and do that or w/e
12:44AM, May 29

im coming over right now! right now.
12:44AM, May 29

ooooook
12:44AM, May 29

Dave tossed the phone down with a sigh. "Well this is stupid. What the hell is a hydra? Is it its own species? Is it-"

"Got it," Bro said. Dave sat up, surprised, and leaned forward.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Bro turned the screen around. "If you look at some really old bullshit records, Hydra is actually the name of a demon."

"A demon."

"Right. Who would apparently turn into a giant snake monster with seven heads, and when whoever was fighting it managed to cut all the heads off, Hydra would just skedaddle." Bro frowned. "But these heads don't get seared- you torch it, it'll still spawn two more."

"Then... how do we...?"

"I have no idea."

"Maybe we should just go for the body," Dave suggested. "I mean, that should work, right? Stab something in the heart, it'll die. Unless it's a vampire."

"Right." Bro shut the laptop lid. "Okay, so it'll be a demon, possessing someone. I haven't seen many signs of demon activity here, but I'm guessing Hydra isn't your average demon."

"We'll have to trap it," Dave said, then frowned. "Hey, Pup."

"Yes?"

"Why did Hydra only want you to kill Bro?"

Pup only shrugged.

Dave sighed. "Alright. Maybe we can summon it."

"Summon Hydra?"

"There's gotta be a generic summoning spell we can use where we can substitute its name in for whatever's already in there and still have it work." Dave circled the bed and picked up several large books, one of which was a book full of summoning spells and dark magic information. It was a witchcraft book Bro had picked up somewhere a long time ago. To be honest, Dave had kind of assumed they had had it forever. He flipped through the pages, trying to find something...

"Here," Bro said, gesturing for Dave to give him the book. Dave handed it over and watched carefully as he skillfully flicked to a summoning page- there were spells for summoning so many different demons, but nothing specifically for Hydra. Bro stopped at one of the generic ones, and tapped it gently. "We should have most, if not all, of the ingredients needed. Most are in the Camaro, and then it needs some blood."

"Geez, blood, really?"

"This is the only one we have all the stuff for!"

"Okay, fine." Dave stood there, chewing on his lip for a few seconds. "But we can't do it here."

"Well, no." Bro rolled his eyes. "Obviously not. That would be stupid."

"Right, yeah. So where...?"

Bro turned in a small circle, thinking to himself, then snapped his fingers. "We can ask Egbert where there's a good abandoned area around here."

"John? Why him?"

"Because he's showing up here soon to meet the kid," Bro pointed out. Dave blinked as he remembered this fact.

"Oh, yeah," he muttered. "Right."

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Dave crossed to it quickly and opened it- John stood in the doorway, then blinked at him in surprise.

"Dave! You're... up."

"What?"

"Like, walking." He glanced inside, took in Bro, then his gaze flicked over to Pup. The glasses already magnified his eyes, but they got even bigger when he saw the ghost kid. "Oh my god!"

"Come in," Dave said belatedly, and stepped backwards to let John in. John slipped past him and hesitantly approached Pup.

"Hallo," Pup said nonchalantly. He was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You're a ghost?"

"Dead," Pup confirmed, showing off his bullet wounds. John winced.

"Yikes, those look nasty!"

"Well they did kill me."

"Right," John said, slightly disconcerted by this.

Dave cleared his throat and nodded towards the door. Everyone looked up and realized they had something to do, except John, who glanced around the room in confusion.

"What are we doing?" he asked.

"Hey, John," Dave stated. "Do you know where there's, oh, an old empty barn or something?"

"Yeah," John said. "Why?"

"Because..." Faltering, Dave looked to his brother for confirmation that he could reveal his plans. Bro nodded. Dave turned back. "Well, we're going to summon Hydra. And kill it."

"Kill it?!"

"Well, no. We can't kill it- it's really hard to kill a demon, unless you have an centuries-old demon-killing blade, or an angel's sword. But centuries-old demon-killing blades are really hard to come by, and angel swords are just myths, to normal hunters like us." He shrugged. "So we'll do the best we can, and exorcise it."

"So..."

"Send the bastard back to Hell where it belongs."

"Hah, cool," said John. Then he paused, glancing around at their faces, and added, "Wait... Hell isn't a real place, is it?"

"Ask the Winchesters," Dave muttered.

"Who?"

"Never mind. Let's just get to the barn- we don't have much time," Bro interrupted. "From what I read, if nobody kills the ghosts, Hydra will start killing humans and using their life-force to summon ghosts instead. So we should get going, or we're gonna have a massacre on our hands real quick."

"Oh," said John, at the same time as Dave swore loudly. They glanced at each other, Dave slightly embarrassed.

"John, car," Bro said. "We'll be out in a minute with Pup."

"We're bringing him?"

"'Course. He's a powerful ghost, and it's not like would could stop him from coming if he wanted to."

"I'm right here," Pup pointed out, and both of the Striders looked down and shuffled their feet, caught embarrassed again.

"Right, sorry," Bro said. "Do you want to come with us?"

"Why not," Pup replied lazily, and hopped off the bed. "What's a car?"

"Hoo boy." Bro left the room with the ghost-boy.

Dave nabbed his gun and headed out to the car. John was getting in the backseat, and Pup was climbing in the other side of the backseat. John looked nervous and stunned that he was now riding around in a hunter's car with a ghost kid in the backseat next to him. The Striders took their customary places, slammed the doors, and started out.

"We're gonna go kill a demon, yay," said John, trying to make conversation. He stopped trying after a few seconds. Dave glanced over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. The Camaro rolled to the edge of the parking lot and sat there, growling.

"All right," Bro said, glancing back and forth. "Lead on, Egbert."